London
Hundreds of protesters have descended on Government buildings in central London to demonstrate against the downgrading of exam results.
Many A-level students were left distraught after about 280,000 entries were downgraded from teacher assessments and schools vowed to unleash a flood of appeals.
Anger mounted on Saturday night after Ofqual, the exams regulator for England, announced that its guidance for students hoping to challenge their A-level grades on the basis of their results in mock exams was “being reviewed”.
The sudden withdrawal has been criticised by students, families and community leaders, with some urging the Government to “get a grip” of the situation before millions of pupils receive their GCSE results on Thursday.
Around 300 demonstrators arrived at the Department of Education on Sunday afternoon and started shouting “come out Gavin”.
Many of the protesters called the downgrading of results “classist” and chanted “justice for the working class” outside the building.
Students chanted “get Gav gone” and many of the signs carried by the demonstrators called for the education secretary’s resignation over the results.
A science teacher with GCSE pupils in London said she was at the demonstration ahead of results day for her students next week.
The teacher, who did not wish to give her name, said: “I think this is the biggest attack on the working class, probably since Thatcher, or at least the most brazen.
“This is going to be devastating particularly for the working class, including black and minority ethnic students.
“I’ve seen that up to two million GCSE kids are going to get downgraded potentially so I’m so scared for them, my heart is breaking for these kids.”
Dozens of students sat down on the floor at the front door of the Department of Education as hundreds filled the street.
The majority of the protesters were wearing face coverings, though they were crowded close together.
Three vans of police were at the protest, with three uniformed officers in dark blue face masks at the doors of the Department for Education.
The protesters were chanting “vote them out”, with many demonstrators holding signs referencing the next election.
They started to leave the Department for Education and headed towards Downing Street as the demonstration entered its third hour.
Maya Szollosy, 18, from London, said: “We’re voting age now, most of us, and we’re young. “We’re going to remember this for many years until the general election and I don’t think many students are going to vote for the Conservative Party after what they did to us.”
It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was urged to take “personal responsibility” for the A-level “crisis”. Labour said the situation had turned into a “farce” and urged the Prime Minister to “sort out” the appeals system, while a senior Tory also blasted the “huge mess”.
Meanwhile, some students were resorting to legal action in an attempt to get their downgrades reversed through the courts.
In a statement, deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “Gavin Williamson’s handling of this year’s exam results has been a complete and utter fiasco. We have had weeks of chaos, confusion and incompetence.
“And yet Boris Johnson has been nowhere to be seen. He has been watching from the sidelines while a generation of young people are being robbed of their future.
“We cannot have another week like this. The Prime Minister must now take personal responsibility for this crisis by addressing the country in the next 24 hours to explain precisely how he will end this historic injustice.
“No student should be worse off because of government failure. What we need is a return to teacher assessments for this year’s A-level results and urgent action to avoid a repeat of the same injustice affecting hundreds of thousands of GCSE students this week.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: “Weeks of chaos, confusion and incompetence. “We need a return to teacher assessments for A-level results and urgent action to avoid the same injustice for GCSE students.
Weeks of chaos, confusion and incompetence. We need a return to teacher assessments for A-level results and urgent action to avoid the same injustice for GCSE students.
Boris Johnson has been invisible during this crisis. He needs to take personal responsibility, and fix it.
“Boris Johnson has been invisible during this crisis. He needs to take personal responsibility, and fix it.”
Tory ?MP Robert Halfon, the chairman of the Commons Education Committee, also took aim at Ofqual as he described the situation as a “huge mess”.
He told BBC News: “That is a huge mess. Goodness knows what is going on at Ofqual. It is the last thing we need at this time. This just unacceptable in my view.
“Students and teachers are incredibly anxious – particularly the students who are worried about their future. This has got to be sorted out.”
In a document published on Saturday evening, Ofqual said that if the mock result was higher than the teacher’s prediction, it was the teacher’s prediction which would count. It said that, while mock exams did not usually cover the full range of content, the assessments took into account a student’s performance across the whole course.
But, in a brief statement on Saturday night, Ofqual said the policy was “being reviewed” by its board and that further information would be released “in due course”. No reason for the decision was immediately available and the Department for Education declined to comment.—AFP
